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EP. REVIEW: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Train Arc


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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 2:56 pm Reply with quote
As much as I enjoyed my time with Mugen Train in movie form, I'm curious to see if it fares better in episodic form. There were definitely moments where I thought to myself "ah, yes, and this is where the next episode would've started", so it definitely has a sort of "made for TV movie" feel to it as opposed to the rest of ufotable's typical anime movie offerings.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2091
PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:35 pm Reply with quote
Links are broken.
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The Not so Chosen One



Joined: 18 Nov 2016
Posts: 433
PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:42 pm Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
As much as I enjoyed my time with Mugen Train in movie form, I'm curious to see if it fares better in episodic form. There were definitely moments where I thought to myself "ah, yes, and this is where the next episode would've started", so it definitely has a sort of "made for TV movie" feel to it as opposed to the rest of ufotable's typical anime movie offerings.

I mean, with a 120-minute movie, it's pretty easy to break it down into 20-minutes suposed "sequences".
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Tripple-A



Joined: 21 Feb 2017
Posts: 383
Location: Hamburg, Germany
PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:10 pm Reply with quote
Not necessarily. Just because 120 is easily divided by 20 doesn't mean you can simply make a cut around the 20min mark, pacing, scene transitions etc. have to be paid attention to or else the end of an episode will feel off. That being said, I agree with whiskeyii that some moments in the movie made me feel like they planned an episode cut here.

But do I need to watch the movie again in episode form? Does it have anything really new, not only some adjusted scenes to better fit an ending or start of an episode?
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Tony K.
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Joined: 18 Nov 2003
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:27 pm Reply with quote
First episode is actually a filler transition into the actual movie material.

spoiler[It shows Rengoku arriving in town to fight a lesser demon, and he saves this little girl and her grandma who are selling bento boxes. He's so appreciative of the food, he buys all of the boxes, and that's what he's eating at the beginning of the film.]

I feel it helps build his character a little more and gives the movie a slightly more coherent introduction, since in the manga, none of that happens. The juniors just go from home base to the train station, hop aboard, and there's Rengoku.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:28 am Reply with quote
Too bad you haven't seen the movie for comparisons, but looking forward to seeing your take on it in episode form Smile
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Picky33



Joined: 09 Jul 2021
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 6:55 am Reply with quote
All they can do with this series is fill in and correct and missing details, this in my mind so far is a direct rip of the TV series that I found myself fast forwarding it through the boring parts of everyone's dreams because I've already seen the movie. i'll probably end up watching this because its demon slayer and i survived the Endless Eight arc.

Personally i found the Mugen Train half of the Demon Slayer Movie to be the most boring part, i mostly enjoyed the second half. The movie itself was 110mins long divided into 20 mins chunks, thats roughly 6 episodes so i'm curious what they will pad the rest of the cour with?
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lossthief
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Joined: 14 Dec 2012
Posts: 1380
PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:05 am Reply with quote
It's already been announced that this "Arc" will be 7 episodes total. 6 adapting the movie + the anime-original opener. Then it'll be moving to the Entertainment District arc.
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Stelman257



Joined: 26 Jul 2013
Posts: 266
PostPosted: Thu Oct 21, 2021 12:54 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Zenitsu is…also here, which is…well, we all have our crosses to bear, I suppose.

How's it feel knowing he's by far the most popular character in Japan, especially with girls ahahaha. Feels like we're all in different universes sometimes man.
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Sekaro



Joined: 12 Nov 2018
Posts: 345
PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:42 pm Reply with quote
No comment on the new OP/ED from Lisa & how it compares to what everyone seems to think of as the God of Anime OPs?
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The Not so Chosen One



Joined: 18 Nov 2016
Posts: 433
PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:55 pm Reply with quote
Tripple-A wrote:
Not necessarily. Just because 120 is easily divided by 20 doesn't mean you can simply make a cut around the 20min mark, pacing, scene transitions etc

Much of the movie did feel pretty divisible by their 20-minute marks, specially when you compare some of the TV arcs to the Mugen Train movie. There are a lot of parts there that do fit he narrative arc of a 20-min. episode, which only reinforces the notion that this movie should've been just another batch of anime episodes. The pacing for all those episodes are there, and the cuts are easy to grasp.
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lossthief
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Joined: 14 Dec 2012
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:48 pm Reply with quote
The question of pacing and how the story was/is edited in adaptation is interesting. One of the most common observations about the movie was that it felt paced like a series of TV episodes, and now that it is coming in that form James feels like the episodes don't really flow well.

I think that mostly comes down to two different kinds of "pacing" going on. As others have pointed out, there are definitely a number of observable breaks in action that more or less line up to the length of a TV episode. There are lulls in the characters' actions, or cutaways from a particular moment, or significant reveals that you could imagine fading into the end credits pretty easily. The reveal that the heroes have all been put to sleep in S02E02 is a good example. That, I think, comes down to how closely they stuck to the overall pacing of the manga's chapters, which themselves were written to have individual rising action and payoffs, and that flow is present even in a long-form adaptation.

But the anime itself isn't really built with episodic structure in mind. Scenes transition into the next with the understanding on the creators' part that this would all be viewed in one continuous sitting, so the frustration of an awkward cliffhanger wouldn't really exist, as it would be followed up on within the next few minutes or scenes. But since this is now coming out piecemeal, week-to-week, that means individual episodes don't really have a direct payoff or definitive climax, and anything that's introduced without being expanded upon just can't stand on its own.

It's an odd bit of limbo the show has wound up in, honestly, and mostly works to hihglight the weaknesses in this arc IMO.
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:30 am Reply with quote
It honestly puts me in mind of RWBY; for as much as I enjoy that show, it has many, many pacing issues, largely stemming from the choice to write each season as if it were one long movie broken up into episodes. When my sister ended up bingeing each season in the official “movie marathon” format on YouTube (so no opening or ending themes included), she said she couldn’t tell where each episode ended and the next began.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4563
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 2:53 pm Reply with quote
Stelman257 wrote:

How's it feel knowing he's by far the most popular character in Japan, especially with girls ahahaha. Feels like we're all in different universes sometimes man.

I mean Japanese fandom as a whole frequently has profoundly terrible taste, so this isn't exactly a shock.

I enjoyed the first season for what it was, but it didn't exactly bowl me over, and the massive overinflated hype over Next Arc: The Movie didn't give me any real desire to go out and see it. At this point I feel like I'll just wait and see if Toonami gets the second season and watch it that way.
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Dab1za9



Joined: 27 Mar 2016
Posts: 68
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:38 pm Reply with quote
Yeah the whole country had a terrible taste unlike your exquisite taste and somehow declared something overhyped without even seeing it.
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